About Queensland's Flying-foxes

Queenslanders are blessed to live in a diverse natural environment with exciting wildlife. Flying-foxes offer some of our greatest wildlife spectacles and have a fascinating natural history. They also have a vital ecological role in pollinating and dispersing the seeds of many native trees. But they are subject to persecution, continue to lose important habitat, and face an uncertain future.

A viable future for our ‘finger-winged night-workers’ (as poet Les Murray describes them) depends on support and action by Queenslanders to protect them from multiple threats. As the Queensland Government says, “The survival of flying-foxes depends on our ability to live with them.”[1]

Grey-headed Flying-fox (threatened) Image: Halley Design

Spectacled Flying-fox (threatened) Image: Halley Design

Black Flying-fox (Image: Halley Design)

Little Red Flying-fox (Halley Design)

Our flying-fox species Flying-foxes are large bats (megabats). They differ from microbats (little bats) by feeding on nectar and fruit, not insects, and navigating by vision rather than echolocation. They roost in large groups on tree branches, rather than in caves or hollows.

Four species of flying-fox inhabit mainland Australia and all four live in Queensland (there are also island species). Grey-headed flying-foxes live in eastern Australia from Mackay to Geelong, and recently also in Adelaide. Spectacled flying foxes live in tropical north Queensland. Black flying-foxes occur across northern Australia and along the east coast down to Sydney. Little red flying-foxes have the largest range, in western, northern and eastern Australia in coastal and inland areas

Legal statusAs native mammals, all flying-foxes are protected in Queensland and cannot be harmed or killed unless a permit is issued by the Queensland Government (under the Nature Conservation Act 1992). The Spectacled flying-fox and Grey-headed flying-fox are also protected under federal laws (the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999) as threatened species. They were listed as ‘vulnerable’ in 2002 after substantial population declines due to habitat destruction, large-scale slaughter and other threats.

It is only very recently - since 1994 and from 1974-1985 - that flying-foxes have received any protection under law. For most of Queensland’s history as a colony and state, flying-foxes were classed as vermin and there were no limits on killing. They were subject to large-scale slaughter, with shooting raids on camps and a bounty in many districts to encourage extermination.

Flying foresters (also see our conservation page) Flying-foxes play a very important ecological role by pollinating and dispersing the seeds of many native plants. They are long-range pollinators, promoting genetic flow between eucalypts and other Myrtaceae at greater distances apart (> 5 km) than most other pollinators.[2] Spectacled flying-foxes feed on the fruit of more than a dozen rainforest species for which no other seed dispersers are known and can spread ingested seeds up to 80 km away.[3]

Such long-range capacity for spreading pollen and seeds is very important to genetically re-link habitats fragmented by clearing. It will also be vital in assisting native plants to adapt to climate change. Long before flying-fox species are recognised as threatened, they may become functionally extinct, as populations decline below the threshold necessary to contribute significantly to seed dispersal and pollination.[4]

Flying foxes contribute greatly to the local environment and economy. When they join the commuter rush at dusk, flying foxes are off to their job as forest-makers.

Incurable sweet-tooths, flying foxes eat fruit, nectar and blossom. In the process, they pollinate flowers and disperse seeds of important native trees. Winging their way around the landscape, up to 100 km in a night, flying foxes are responsible for the upkeep of many forest species.[5]

Because of low reproductive rates, flying-foxes are vulnerable to population declines. With females able to bear only one young a year and generally not reproducing until they are 3 years old, they have a low capacity for population increase. It is biologically impossible for flying-foxes to build up to “plague” numbers. Population stability requires high survival rates of adults and juveniles. An imposed mortality as low as 10% in addition to natural mortality can lead to rapid decline of a large population.[6]